Mapping, Postmodernism, Indigenous People And The Changing Direction Of North American Cartography
Cartographers have an opportunity now to make fundamental changes in the direction and scope of academic cartography. As a catalyst for change, J.B.Harley's proposal for a 'postmodern' cartography is important for text-based societies like ours, but it will restrict our studies unnece...
| Published in: | Cartographica: The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization |
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| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
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University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress)
1991
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| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/5j46-51t2-7m42-316g https://utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/5J46-51T2-7M42-316G |
| Summary: | Cartographers have an opportunity now to make fundamental changes in the direction and scope of academic cartography. As a catalyst for change, J.B.Harley's proposal for a 'postmodern' cartography is important for text-based societies like ours, but it will restrict our studies unnecessarily if taken alone. I provide a critique of postmodernist thought as applied to cartography, focusing especially on its inability to account for mapping in non-textual, non-Cartesian cultures where action and process are often crucial. Consequently, I propose a process approach to cartography as an additional basis for reorienting the field. Finally, I couple this approach with map deconstruction to interpret recent Inuit (Eskimo) toponymic mapping as part of a lengthy cross-cultural dialogue about Arctic North America. |
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